Watch: More Than a Bakery serving up culture…family style

VERSAILLES, KY. — More Than A Bakery is a new start-up with modern views, but it’s also an extension of the country’s oldest family-owned cookie/cracker bakery. This dichotomy is the basis for coexisting as one big, happy family.

It starts before workers even enter the building, when they take the driveway entrance marked Family Members. And in day-to-day interaction, “family” is an integral part of how the company works, with a Values statement that includes words like “serve,” “integrity” and “respect.”

“Our hiring process is purely a culture fit,” said Bill Quigg, president of More Than A Bakery. “We feel very strongly that we can teach people how to bake cookies, but you have to fit the people you’re working with.”

Felicia Quigg, vice-president, Family Pride, More Than a Bakery, meets every potential hire, and she knows the value of a cohesive group who can work together productively and respectfully.

“We can talk about what we want our culture to be, and we can put programs in place, but what’s most important is how people treat the Family Member beside them,” Ms. Quigg said.

This mentality permeates throughout the bakery, but it’s most evident in the Family Space, where break times are shared at tables that can be reconfigured to accommodate large or small groups, or downtime can be spent playing a friendly game of ping-pong or cornhole.

Meal breaks get a family feeling with “real” dishes, silverware and napkins.

And throughout the entire facility, the More Than A Bakery family shares music. From any spot in the building — the Family Space, the warehouse or even the production floor — music plays. “It’s either K-Love (Christian radio) or rock-n-roll,” Ms. Quigg said. “When we designed the building, having music throughout was very important to me.”

If the employees of More Than A Bakery are Family, Ms. Quigg is most certainly “mom.”

“I frequently joke that I’m a mom to 370 people,” she said. “It plays well into the respectful accountability aspect.”